picked up this old 50ies era Black and Decker valve grinder for $10.00 at a farm auction, its just what i needed because i was in the middle of staring to make cross slide table for a three axis tool fixture head i purchased off ebay to make a tool grinder and this thing is just perfect to suit my needs, not only do i have the x - y slide for the fixture i have a mounted grinding spindle.

I removed the original valve rotating fixture head to reveal my surface area where i am going to install the base table.

The next thing i need is a table the place the grinding fixture on, so i had some 1/2'' aluminium plate floating around, so I cut out a large plate marked it out and drilled the location hole.

now i located a square slot where i am placing a parallel in so the fixture slides against that to keep me parallel with the front side of the grinding wheel, the row of holes you see drilled are the hold down bolts for the fixture, they are spaced so i can slide the fixture from side to side because i only have 2 inches of slide on the table.

Here is my fixture jig mounted on the table plate, you can also see i played around with a head plate tool holder affixed to the spindle with a 60 degree threading tool inserted.

Well that's as far as i have got, it will be a while before i get back to it as i fly to Europe next week for a while, as soon as i make any more progress ill post what i have..

Since my return I have managed to get some more done on this tool build, I had to notch out a pocket so the handle that transverses the spindle head does not hit it or my hand, as you can see i used this space to install some bent stainless tubing for an indicator stop this tells me how deep i am plunging the tool into the stone, I made it fully adjustable for future use, the indicator is being secured by a clamp at the moment so I can figure out the best permanent location.

Here is a shot from behind.

By no means is this machine complete but not having any patients I could not resist trying out a cut, I decided to make a threading form tool....

side shot..

This is what i have got. I think this is a piece of 5/16 HSS, its 60 deg vee with a 7.5 deg lead edge relief and 2.5 trail edge relief for the helix angle, checked on the protractor it measured up a treat and when the fishtail was offered up it was a solid fit, I am over the moon with it.

The Grinding Jig fixture has a problem with the rotational axis as in there is a little slop with the clamping force, although this is not a major problem i am going to make a dial and a set screw to lock it better and give me a better reading on the angle.Also by playing with it i know my fixture location has many limitations to it, I will be drilling more holes to over come this.

I dont know the RPM on the thing as there is no information on the motor plate and i cant find any info on the web, I would say it spins around 5,000 rpm, i am looking at more types of grinding wheels like this type:

Well i have made progress.. i had to re-design the holding fixture because its round this helps when i am grinding close the wheel clears the rounded edge.

End view...

here is the dial i made for the rotating axis, i have made 90 deg with 45 being zero, i tried to stamp numbers on with a jig i made but it did not work well so i stopped, zero is marked zero that's all i need, i also made the pointer ... it works well

Just have to make the stop plunger for the axis lock..

now im ready to start grinding some tooling my first tool i need is a finishing toolbit for my shaper... i will show you the results shortly..

I never looked back, it works a treat the key is the fixture head.. i ended up with a grinding set up for less than a $100.. i went to a diamond cup wheel is another factor to look into. doing this project saved me loads of money..